Recently, when I started up Opera, it updated to 10.5.  I noticed a huge cosmetic change.  Observe:

[caption id=“attachment_3272” align=“aligncenter” width=“480” caption=“Opera 10.5 new gui”] [/caption]

Yes, they have copied the GUI setup from Chrome.  The tabs are now above the address bar.  Now, they still have a separate search bar like Firefox, but this is a pretty big change.  Also, although I can’t share it in a screenshot, they have changed the tab animations so they are really slick like in Chrome.  Overall, the animations are one of those things that really add to the experience without doing much.  It just feels nice to have things slide in and out rather than pop into existence.  They also seem to have REALLY sped up the startup to the point where Opera is once again a joy to use.  They also made a change to the way the text searching works:

Just wanted to remind my loyal readers so they remember it’s April Fool’s Day when they see awesome stuff like this.

With all apologies to Dave’s masculinity, I’ve gone with a flower again.  I just felt it was perfect for April.

Click on the following and save it if you have a square monitor:

[caption id=“attachment_3253” align=“aligncenter” width=“400” caption=“April 2010 - 1024x768 - for square monitors”] [/caption]

Click on the following and save it if you have a wide screen monitor:

[caption id=“attachment_3254” align=“aligncenter” width=“480” caption=“April 2010 - 1680x1050 - for wide monitors”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The BSO Warms up for the Concert”] [/caption]

Danielle and I recently went to see " Peter and the Wolf" at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  Danielle and I both grew up watching the Disney animated adaption of “Peter and the Wolf” and we loved the idea of being able to listen to the music as performed by the BSO.  I don’t care how amazing the speakers are in your home theater system, nothing sounds as amazing as the orchestra.

When I flew to Tampa last week, there was a magazine cover that claimed the days of free professional content over the Internet were over.  The cable companies had a way, it claimed, to control the programs available and keep us paying >$100/month for cable.  I didn’t read the article, but I have a guess at how they might do this.  Comcast is currently attempting to buy NBC (if the Justice Department doesn’t have anything to say about that) and NBC has a stake in Hulu.  So, Comcast could limit Hulu to existing cable customers or they could limit the content to make Hulu no longer that important.  Already, changes are afoot that have made Hulu less attractive.  The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are no longer available via Hulu.  Whether or not this is part of the same agenda (getting people to pay for cable) isn’t important.  The less programming available in one place, the less important Hulu is.  But if they succeed I will simply stop watching TV.

My late March Photojojo.  (They select the most interesting photos I took a year ago)

I’m a big Tim Burton fan and I also tend to like his casting of Johnny Depp.  But I’m no fanboy:  I found Tim Burton’s take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be worse than the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  The first thing I have to get off my chest and the thought that was pervasive in my mind nearly to the point of preventing my enjoyment of the movie is that this movie should really have been titled Return to Wonderland.  If you’re into movies, you probably already knew this, and so did I.  But I can imagine lots of people who just see a commercial or see the name and think it’ll be a live action version of the old Disney movie.  (It doesn’t help that Disney is behind this version as well)  So, in this version, we have an adult Alice about who runs away from her marriage proposal and into the rabbit hole.

I’ve been listening to podcasts for about two years now.  I got into it because I love listening to some NPR programs, but they are always on when I’m at work or asleep on the weekends.  Eventually, I heard on NPR that they have podcasts of various shows.  I checked it out right away because in Maryland NPR is on 88.1 which is always being interfered with by SiriusXM radio receivers.  At first I only listened to a few podcasts because I didn’t own an iPod and I so I burned the podcasts to a CD-R every few days.  That got expensive, so I got an iPod shuffle.  Since podcasts don’t take up too much space, I started getting into more and more podcasts.  Some I discovered in magazines and others were recommendations from Dan.  So, I thought I would share the podcasts I listen to so that those following this blog could perhaps discover some new podcasts they didn’t know about.  Dan, for example, recently got into This American Life.  (I think after I kept telling him about it - but he may have discovered it independently)  I’m going to put links to the actual podcast URL, so just copy that into your podcather or iTunes.

Once again, I got my photojojo photo time capsule email.  This time, one year ago I was in Miami for my cousin’s wedding.  And here are the photos they chose:

Here’s your March computer desktop background!

Click on this one and then, once it loads, right-click and set as desktop if you have a square monitor:

[caption id=“attachment_3211” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“March 2010 - 1024x768 Desktop Calendar for Squarish Monitors”] [/caption]

Click on this one and then, once it loads, right-click and set as desktop if you have a widescreen monitor:

[caption id=“attachment_3212” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“March 2010 - 1680x1050 Desktop Calendar for Widescreen Monitors”] [/caption]